Link Love (2016-12-17)

Election & Fascism

““Normal,” as a concept, matters. The old adage that it is just the setting on a dryer is not just wrong but misleading. When something is abnormal it is important to understand why. If a person is not normal they could be brilliant or they could be sick, and knowing the difference is the distance between life and death. In politics, too, there is normal and there is abnormal. An insurgent candidate swinging a party or the country right or left is normal — Marco Rubio winning the GOP nomination and the general election would have been normal, for example. But Donald Trump is not normal. In fact, the things he represents, the decisions he has made and is continuing to make, and the entourage he has surrounded himself with, are not normal. They are so abnormal that they look like the opening stages of authoritarianism — something those of us steeped in the study of authoritarian countries recognize like a flashing light at a railroad crossing.” This Is Not Normal – Joshua Foust

“After any catastrophe, there’s a moment when life returns to ‘normal’ and for a lot of people, it seems like that moment is now-ish. Pretty soon we’ll all get swept up in the holidays and before you know it, it’s March. Time marches on, we get used to the ‘new normal’ and our indignation fades into quiet hopelessness and ignorance-is-bliss.It’s human nature.SO RIGHT NOW, WHILE WE’RE REALLY FEELING IT, LET’S ALL TAKE A MINUTE TO SET UP MONTHLY, AUTO-DEDUCTED DONATIONS TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT SERVE MARGINALIZED PEOPLE. ” Take Action While You’re Still Angry – Yes and Yes

“Are progressives currently engaging in the same fear mongering that evangelicals and conservatives binged on in previous elections? Are they, too, making extreme predictions of a futuristic dystopia built out of complete fiction? I’ve thought about this and I’ve weighed it in my mind, and the answer I’ve come up with is no. No, they are not. While conservative fears about Obama eroding civil liberties were based on nothing whatsoever, progressive fears of what Trump may do are based on Trump’s actual words and actions. That makes it very different.” Are Progressives Crying Wolf? Not So Fast. – Love, Joy, Feminismre Progressives Crying Wolf? Not So Fast. – Love, Joy, Feminism

“Shelly makes a good point. Sometimes we all just need a good cry. And kids, with their immature frontal cortex, need to cry more often than adults, to heal all those feelings that are making them act out. But that’s only healing if they have a compassionate witness — the safe haven of a parent. Leaving your child to cry alone just traumatizes her, and gives her the message that she’s all alone with those scary feelings, just when she needs us most.
So when a child is acting out, remember that she’s “acting out” feelings she can’t express verbally. That’s a signal that she has a full emotional backpack that needs emptying. She just needs you to connect with her to help her feel safe enough.” If he seems hellbent on trouble, he’s asking for your help. – Aha ParentingIf he seems hellbent on trouble, he’s asking for your help. – Aha Parenting

Health

“In a previous study, the same research team found that organic crops and organic crop-based foods have up to 60 percent more key antioxidants and lower levels of the toxic metal cadmium than conventional crops.
“We have shown without doubt there are composition differences between organic and conventional food,” said Leifert. Taken together, these studies “suggest that a switch to organic fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products would provide significantly higher amounts of dietary antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids,” he added.” Organic Milk and Meat Have Higher Nutrient Levels: Study – MedicineNet

“But Eran Elinav and Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a way of embracing that variability. By comprehensively monitoring the blood sugar, diets, and other traits of 800 people, they built an algorithm that can accurately predict how a person’s blood-sugar levels will spike after eating any given meal.
They also used these personalized predictions to develop tailored dietary plans for keeping blood sugar in check. These plans sometimes included unconventional items like chocolate and ice-cream, and were so counter-intuitive that they baffled both the participants and dieticians involved in the study. But they seemed to work when assessed in a clinical trial, and they hint at a future when individuals will get personalized dietary recommendations, rather than hewing to universal guidelines.” The Algorith that Creates Diet that Works for You – The Atlantic